What to include in brand guidelines

The twelve parts fall into three layers. Parts 1 to 3 are the story: why the brand exists, who it’s for and how it behaves. Parts 4 to 9 are the system: logo, colour, type, shapes, imagery and language. Parts 10 to 12 are about use: how to apply that system and where the files are.

That order is deliberate. Every rule further on should trace back to something earlier in the book. “Use plenty of white space” is a matter of taste, until the brand personality says the brand wants to come across as calm and self-assured. Then it becomes a rule with a reason, and a reason makes a rule easier to follow and harder to argue away.

Not sure yet what a brand book is, or how it relates to a brand style guide? Start with what is a brand book. Below, we go through each part in depth: what belongs in it and where it tends to go wrong in practice.

1. Brand foundation. The brand story in a few paragraphs, the mission (what you do and for whom), the vision (where you’re heading) and three to five core values. For each value, say what it means in concrete behaviour or communication. Common mistake: values like “quality”, “customer focus” and “innovation”. They fit any company, so they guide nobody. Test: could a competitor pick exactly the same words? Then they’re too generic.

2. Audience and positioning. One to three personas with their situation, need and what they expect from you, a positioning statement (for whom, what, and different from whom) and optionally a positioning map with two axes where you place yourself and competitors. Common mistake: personas full of demographics (age, income, hobbies) and missing the question that matters: which problem does the brand solve for this person?

3. Brand personality. Character traits with a short explanation, ideally in pairs: “warm, but not cloying”, “direct, but not blunt”. Personality spectrums (for example playful ↔ serious, understated ↔ exuberant) show exactly where the brand sits. Common mistake: only positive adjectives. A personality becomes useful once you also write down what the brand is not.

4. Logo. The primary logo and every variant (horizontal, stacked, symbol on its own, reversed, black and white), with when to use each. Define the clear space around it (often expressed as part of the logo itself, such as the height of a letter), the minimum size for screen and print, which backgrounds it may sit on, and a page of misuse: stretched, rotated, recoloured, on a busy background. Common mistake: rules but no files. Put a download next to every variant, for screen (SVG, PNG) and print (PDF or EPS, in CMYK and Pantone). See how that looks on Onda’s logo page.

5. Colour. Primary and secondary colours with their values in HEX and RGB for screen, CMYK for print and Pantone for spot colours. Show the proportions too: how much of each colour the brand uses. A brand with a bright accent colour looks completely different when that colour covers 5% or 50% of the surface. Also state which text and background combinations are allowed. Common mistake: only a HEX code, after which the printer picks a CMYK value that comes out slightly different.

6. Typography. Which typefaces, which weights, and how to use them for headings, subheadings, body copy and small print. A type scale with fixed sizes and line heights stops everyone from nudging things themselves. Don’t forget fallback fonts: what do you use in Word, PowerPoint or an email where the brand font isn’t available? Common mistake: naming the font without saying where to get it and whether the licence lets partners and agencies use it too.

7. Graphic language. Everything besides logo, colour and type that makes the brand recognisable: shapes, patterns, lines, frames, illustrations and icons. Record how they combine and what they’re not meant for. For icons, a fixed set (your own, or an existing library such as Material Symbols) with one stroke weight and style helps. Common mistake: a lovely pattern on the cover, with no explanation of how big, how often and in which colours it may appear.

8. Photography and image style. Subjects, mood, light, colour and composition, with a moodboard and above all examples of what fits and what doesn’t. Keywords (“daylight”, “people in motion”, “room to breathe”) help photographers and whoever picks stock images. Common mistake: only good examples. The wrong examples are what make an image style sharp.

9. Tone of voice. How you address readers (formal or informal, first names or not, contractions or not), writing principles, words you do and don’t use, slogans or taglines, and sample copy for situations that come up often: a product description, a social post, a reply to a complaint. Common mistake: principles without before-and-after examples. “We write clearly” says little; a poor sentence next to the improved version says everything. See Onda’s tone of voice.

10. Layout and composition. How to build a page, post or ad: grids per format (columns, margins, gutters), alignment, how much white space and the balance between text and images. Common mistake: one grid for everything. An A4 letter, an Instagram story and a billboard each need their own structure; give a grid for every format you use often.

11. Applications. Show the system for real: website, social, ads, presentations, business cards, stationery, packaging or signage, depending on what the brand uses. Applications are what people look at first and return to most. Common mistake: glossy mock-ups with no explanation. For each application, name the rules you can see at work (grid, colour proportions, image style), so someone can repeat it for a format that isn’t in the guidelines yet.

12. Files and governance. Where the logos, fonts, templates and images live, which file to use for what, who to contact for questions and approval, and the date of the last change. Common mistake: skipping this part. Without an owner and a version date, nobody knows whether the document is still correct, and without a fixed home for files, people go hunting for them themselves.

The twelve parts cover what almost every brand needs. On top of that there are sections that only make sense in certain situations. Add them when they’ll actually be used, not to make the book thicker.

Brand guidelines get worse with everything that isn’t about the brand itself. Leave these out, or link to them:

Knowing what to include is half the job. The other half is making sure people find it and use it. A sixty-page PDF goes out of date quickly and gets forwarded in versions nobody keeps track of. Online brand guidelines keep one link, let readers copy colour codes and download the right logo files, and always show the latest published version.

For a step-by-step approach, read how to create brand guidelines. Want an outline to fill in straight away? Use the free brand guidelines template. And to see one brand book from front to back, read the brand style guide example, annotated chapter by chapter.